There are always some things that are different with people.

In my case, it is unusually different. It is a tale of two names – for one person.

And, being a natural writer/journalist, with loads of imagination and bit of logically-oriented business sense, let me tell you the story of the two names that I go by.

There was Sofia Tippoo – a name that by itself was unusual – for an Indian. Sofia is the name of the Bulgarian capital and Tippoo the name of a south Indian king.

The usual spelling for Sofia is Sophia – which, as a derivative from Aristotelian times, translated into ‘divine wisdom’.

But, in their wisdom ( divine or not, I leave it to destiny) my folks christened me with Sofia. And this name stood by me for oh-so-many years.

Then, this numerologist, Sanjay Jumaani, walked into my life and changed my way of spelling – not my life though. He said he was not too happy with the way my life was heading – after computing the numbers – the birth numbers ( meaning the date of birth) and the name numbers ( different values for each letter in my name). “The constant dichotomy with the numerologically incompatible numbers was creating negative power (whatever that meant) and ions of positivity were missing,” he claimed.

Unfortunately, he could not change the date of birth but he could change the name (the spelling) to get a “peaceful” number to piece my life together.

He tried his hand – did some squiggly arithmetic, made some additions, permutations, checked out various combinations.

Finally, removed all the ‘o’s and added ‘u’s – and there was a brand new name with a brand new spelling - Sufia Tippu but for the same old person.

Here I am now – still at odds with myself – because even after one year, people who know me, ask – what is my real name.

And, people who don’t know me, are too polite to ask – they just assume that it is a mistake – the email ID is wrong they feel because my visiting card says Sufia Tippu and the mail ID says sofia.tippoo. And, if you were to ask me why I have not changed my mail ID – I would evade a reply. There are some things you just cannot let go – put it down to loyalty or force of habit.

Since, I cannot take things any further, as far as names go, its your call – pick a name you like to use.